After studying Philosophy and Literature, Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón graduated in 1970 as a filmmaker from the Official Film School of Madrid. In 1973, he made his directorial debut with Habla mudita (Speak, Mute Girl ), a film that received the Critics' Prize at the 1974 Berlin Film Festival and was selected for the Academy Awards. Between 1974 and 1975, he wrote the screenplays for Las truchas (The Trout ) (winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival), Furtivo (Furtive) (Golden Shell at the San Sebastián Film Festival), and Las largas vacaciones del 36 (The Long Holidays of '36 ).

He then directed some of the films that definitively established him both inside and outside of Spain: Camada negra (1977, Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin Festival), Sonámbulos (1977, Silver Shell for Best Director at the San Sebastián Festival) and El corazón del bosque (1978).

He also writes and directs plays. Among other works, he has directed Peter Weiss's version of Franz Kafka's The Trial (1979), and You Will Die of Something Else , for the National Drama Center (1982). In 1998, he directed the stage productions of The King of Harlem and Don Perlimplín , operas based on texts by Federico García Lorca.

In 1991 he made the leap to television and directed the series El Quijote , which won the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and the Eurovision Award.

In 1993 he was elected President of SGAE, a position he held until 2001, when he was appointed President of the Fundación Autor. That same year he was elected to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. Since 2000 he has also been President of the European Federation of Audiovisual Producers.